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For Immediate Release
CBIA RECEIVES GRANT TO PREPARE TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS FOR CAREERS IN MANUFACTURING
The Connecticut Business & Industry Association received an $884-thousand grant from the National Science Foundation to help prepare the state’s technical high school students for high-skill, high-wage careers in manufacturing. “Recruiting students for manufacturing is a formidable task for the technical high schools and community colleges,” says Lauren Kaufman, CBIA vice president of education and job training and executive director of the association’s Education Foundation. “Manufacturers require more sophisticated skills today, and students haven’t always received the kind of training that manufacturers require. The success of this program will be contingent upon close collaboration with our local manufacturers.” The grant, called “Pipeline from the Technical High Schools to the College of Technology” focuses on recruiting and retaining students in manufacturing, as well as helping them obtain the appropriate level of academic skills and employability skills they will need to succeed in post-secondary education or employment after high school. Kaufman added that particular emphasis will be put on helping students obtain the necessary math, science and language skills so that they will not be required to take remedial training before entering the workforce or taking courses in college. The grant will also focus on giving educators work-based learning experiences to keep them current with industry practices. The program will offer school-to-career opportunities, such as student and teacher internships, job shadowing, company visits, math labs, employability skills workshops, teacher professional development workshops and apprenticeship programs. The first year of the program will concentrate on four technical high schools: Howell Cheney in Manchester, A.I. Prince in Hartford, Eli Whitney in Hamden and Platt in Milford. The grant will complement the work being done through the Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing (RCNGM), a National Science Foundation Center grant administered through the Connecticut Community College’s College of Technology (COT). CBIA is the primary business partner for the RCNGM. “The program will better prepare high school students for entry into the technical programs offered by the community colleges and high-wage careers in advanced manufacturing,” said Karen Wosczyna-Birch, director of the Regional Center for Next Generation Manufacturing. The COT is a virtual college that offers two-year associate degrees in engineering, engineering technology and technological studies, giving students full transferable credit into four-year programs at select Connecticut four-year colleges. The grant is being funded through the Advanced Technological Education program of the National Science Foundation. ### CBIA is the state’s largest business organization, with 10,000 members.
For more information contact Nancy Andrews, CBIA media relations manager, at 860-244-1957 or andrewsn@cbia.com. 350 Church
Street · Hartford, CT 06103-1126 · cbia.com/newsroom
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